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Tag: Lamb

These are little barbequed lamb chops designed to be eaten with your hands. Known as lamb scottadito in Italian cookery, this is a brilliant way to speed up the cooking of lamb cutlets. Kids love them prepared like this because you can pick them up with your fingers (scottadito refers to burning your fingers in your rush to eat.) Best cooked on a barbecue.

Salsa verde is a lovely sauce to go with the cutlets, this quantity probably does 8-9 cutlets. You probably want 3 cutlets per person. Increase the salsa verde quantities for more servings.

Ingredients

A rack of lamb (or more then one if you need), French trimmed – which just means with the bones stripped and cleanly showing

Extra virgin olive oil

1 tbsp chopped rosemary

For the salsa verde

3 tbsp chopped parsley

1 tbsp chopped mint

1 tbsp chopped basil

1 tbsp small capers in vinegar, or salted – rinsed, drained and chopped

1 anchovy fillet (packed in oil), drained and finely chopped

½ tbsp Dijon mustard

4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method

Make the salsa verde, mix together all the chopped ingredients in a bowl, then add the mustard and olive oil, stir well to amalgamate. Check and adjust the seasoning. Set aside at room temperature while you prepare the lamb.

Cut the rack of lamb into individual cutlets.

Now beat them out slightly before cooking. Put each one on a chopping board and lay a sheet of clingfilm on top. Using a rolling pin, or the flat part of a heavy knife or cleaver, gently hit the meaty part so it flattens to half the original thickness and spreads to twice the width.

Cook on a barbecue or a ridged griddle pan. Brush both sides of the flattened cutlets with olive oil, then sprinkle with rosemary, salt and pepper. Place the cutlets carefully on the hot pan or grill and cook for a maximum of 1 minute on each side, less if this seems too long.

I use my blowtorch to finish the cutlets. Sometimes the bones (which cook slower) can be a bit bloody and this isn’t very appetising. So I take the blowtorch very quickly around the edge of the bones and cutlets to finish them off before serving.

Serve the lamb scottadito on warmed plates and drizzle over the salsa verde. Serve warm.

Kheema is a minced lamb curry with peas. You can either buy minced lamb or buy some lamb and mince it yourself. Probably best made with minced leg of lamb, but if I’m in a hurry I just buy some minced lamb from the supermarket. It does need some fat content though or it will be “dry” and a bit flavourless.

Like all of these dishes it works best the day after, or if frozen and defrosted later. You can keep half the methi to add at the reheating stage, or even add a bit more.

It’s also really quick to make. Chop the onions first and start them softening while you look out and prep everything else.

Methi really is an essential ingredient. You can buy it mail order here: Spices of India

Green Chutney works really well with this, and I always serve with it, and some natural yoghurt.

(At any stage if the spices or mix start to dry and catch add a splash of water to recover it and avoid burning)

Ingredients

500g minced leg of lamb

3 tbsp vegetable oil

5 green cardamom pods, lightly cracked

1 large onion quite finely chopped

5-6 cloves of garlic, crushed

4cm piece of ginger, peeled and grated

1 tbsp tomato puree

1 tsp turmeric

½-1 tsp Kashmiri chilli powder (mirch), to taste

200ml water, add a little more if too “thick”

100g frozen peas (vary quantity as you like)

Salt to taste

2 tbsp dried fenugreek leaves (methi)

Last minute additions

½ tsp garam masala

1 tbsp chopped coriander leaves

1 chopped green chilli

Juice of half a lemon (optional)

Natural yoghurt (optional)

Method

Heat the oil in a deep pan over medium heat and add the green cardamom pods for about 10 seconds.

Add the onions, frying until softened and brown in colour. This will take up to 20 minutes

Add the garlic and the ginger cooking for 1-2 minutes stirring frequently so they don’t catch and burn.

Stir in the tomato puree and cook for another 2 minutes.

You now need to cook the minced lamb. You’ve got two choices. Either fry it off with the rest of the spices (in which case you might need to turn the heat up a bit, but it’s hard to brown without burning the other ingredients, so I avoid this). Or, as I prefer to do, cook it in a separate hot non-stick pan (that way you can really brown it without scorching the other ingredients, also you can choose how much of the fat you add as some is needed to help the flavour.)

Add the turmeric powder and chilli powder. Cook and stir well for 3-4 minutes until the mince is even coloured all the way through.

Add the methi leaves, and the water, and bring to a boil. Cover with a lid and simmer on a gentle heat for 20 minutes.

Lastly, adjust the seasoning and add the garam masala, coriander and chilli just before serving.

Serve warm with some lemon juice and Indian bread (naan, chapati or parathas) and green chutney. A dollop of natural yoghurt doesn’t go amiss (an especially nice contrast if you like the Kheema quite hot.). I usually omit the lemon juice if I’m using my favourite Green Onion Chutney.